Tag Archives: Can’t Survive on 7.25

If you are a regular Texas Leftist reader, then you have probably come across some posts regarding the Minimum Wage. This blog was even mentioned on the Forbes.com website over the issue.

It’s important to blog about why an increase in the minimum wage is needed. But along with the blogging, I am exploring some options for how to take more substantive actions within the city of Houston. We all know that there is not much hope for a statewide wage increase after the results of this year’s election, but individual municipalities may be able to make more progress.

May is the operative term there, as just this week, we are seeing more disturbing news from the office of Governor-Elect Greg Abbott. For all of the talk he preaches about “small government” local control, he sure is swiping the hand of big government against Dallas County by trying to prevent Commissioners there from raising the minimum wage for their employees and contractors. It’s a preview for what may happen if other counties and cities tried to raise wages as well.

But Abbott’s convoluted ethics shouldn’t prevent Dallas County, or anyone else from trying to do what is right. In the interest of this goal, I decided to create a petition on Change.org calling for a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in the city of Houston. Here is the text of the petition…

We the citizens respectfully call for a ballot initiative which mandates that the City of Houston enact a raise of the minimum wage to $15 per hour over a series of reasonable increments. This measure should be taken up by Houston City Council without delay.

The current minimum wage throughout the state of Texas is the federally mandated $7.25 per hour, including Houston, Texas. But for residents in the city of Houston, this wage is not enough for a full-time working individual to support themselves, especially if they would seek to do so without government assistance. The city has experienced astronomical increases in property taxes, which then get passed on to renters, and the entire consumer population. Houstonians deserve to be paid a living wage.

We can’t survive on $7.25!

If you support the cause, please sign the petition, and share it with your friends. With enough interest, we can make this happen for the City of Houston, and hopefully other Texas cities will follow suit.

The first beatings in the Republican takeover in Harris County were administered at their election night watch party, as the media that dared to speak during a prayer experienced first-hand the love of Christ and his believers. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wonders if assaulting a reporter on camera, physically or verbally, is really what Jesus would do.

Election night may have been tough for Democrats, but it was a big win for the Minimum Wage. This got Texas Leftist wondering… If poorer states like Arkansas and Nebraska can raise wages for their citizens, why can’t Texas’ major cities like Houston, Dallas Austin, San Antonio and El Paso do the same? With skyrocketing costs of living, our citizens definitely can’t survive on $7.25.

Even as we continue to disseminate all that was Election 2014, it’s important to note that one issue typically associated with Progressive policies not only survived the Red Tide, but proved to be one of the night’s biggest winners. Voters in four states and the city of San Francisco all approved increases in the minimum wage. In literally every area where any form of a minimum wage increase was on the ballot, that measure was approved by a decisive majority. Here are the details from Erik Sherman of Forbes Magazine…

If there was upsets and contention in much of midterm voting, there was one topic on which the electorate was largely united: raising the minimum wage. Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all had ballot measures on raising state minimum wages above both their current levels and the federal $7.25 an hour figure.

All four states passed the measures, most by significant margins. More than two-thirds of voters in Alaska agreed to raise minimum wage to $9.75 by 2016. Sixty-five percent of Arkansas voters set the state on course to adopt an $8.50 figure by 2017. In Nebraska, 59 percent said the number should be $9 an hour by 2016. Only South Dakota stood out with a slimmer margin; 53 percent voted to raise minimum wage to $8.50 an hour next year. In Alaska and South Dakota, minimum wage is now pegged to inflation, meaning that it will rise as the cost of living does.

Those weren’t the only votes on the topic. San Francisco, one of the most expensive American cities to live in, increased its local minimum wage to $15 an hour. In Illinois, 62 percent voted for a non-binding referendum to increase minimum wage to $10 an hour by next year. On a related topic, Massachusetts voters passed mandatory paid sick leave. California and Connecticut were the first two states to require the benefit.

The Arkansas vote was especially interesting to see. As Democratic forces have slowly been eradicated, many were wondering what the results of the this statewide vote would be. You have to hand it to the Natural State’s newest Senator-Elect Tom Cotton, as he was able to accurately predict that if the Minimum Wage made it to the ballot, it would pass. Did this decision have a direct effect on pushing Cotton into the Senate? It’s tough to tell, but supporting the people in at least one issue sure didn’t hurt.

2014 proves that increasing the minimum wage is just as popular in red states as it is in blue states. And right now, no red state needs to raise it’s wages more than Texas. As job growth has skyrocketed, so have home values, property taxes and rent. In just 5 short years, major cities have seen rent increases as high as 30 percent. This creates a growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor.

A report issued by the National Low Income Housing Coalition looks at just how much low-income Americans are struggling to make rent every month. From this excerpt of the data, one thing is clear… if you live in a Texas major city, $7.25 an hour is no longer enough to survive.

*Living Wage is calculated based on rent being 30% of an individual income, and requiring a 2 bedroom apartment without government assistance.

Of course there are variances here, like people who may not have need for a 2 bedroom apartment. But the determination of a an actual Living Wage assumes that a person makes enough money to fully support themselves. For example, a person living in a 1 bedroom apartment, their living wage could be $3 to $4 per hour less than what is listed above. The point however still remains that even they are struggling greatly at the current minimum wage level.

On the campaign trail, Texas politicians spoke constantly about the desire for small government solutions to address the issues facing everyday Texans. Well for many people, raising the minimum wage is the best small government solution in existence. If politicians truly believe in such principles, it is time for them to prove it. The cities of Dallas, Houston, Austin San Antonio and El Paso should lead the way by increasing their minimum wage. Each of these municipalities is already a national leader in job creation and economic prosperity. And each of them are seeing the working poor struggle more and more to be able to make ends meet.

Many people are probably skeptical about the possibilities of increasing the minimum wage in any part of Texas. But with municipal elections fast approaching next year for many major cities, this is the right time to discuss and organize around the issue. If a relatively poor state like Arkansas can care enough about its citizens to raise the minimum wage, surely the economic powerhouses of Texas can do the same.

Texas is often heralded for being the most prolific job creator in the United States. One look at the basic employment rolls reveals that in itself, that is a true statement.

What is often missed in that purely quantitative assessment of the roaring Texas job factory? Too many Texans are forced to work in low-wage jobs that have no benefits, and are living paycheck to paycheck with little ability to meet their most basic needs, much less plan for their future. This is the painful reality that occurs in a state that has encouraged corporations to put profits over people for far too long. As revealed in a recent study by The Economic Policy Institute (via Fortune Magazine), it turns out that Texas needs an increase of the minimum wage more than any other state…

Which state needs a minimum wage increase the most?

The Economic Policy Institute tried to answer this question by examining how many state residents would be directly affected by a minimum wage hike to $10.10 and what sort of state stimulus such a raise would produce.

After crunching the numbers, there was a clear winner: Texas, where the current minimum wage is the federally mandated $7.25 an hour.

Out of an estimated total workforce of nearly 11 million in Texas, a $10.10 minimum wage would directly affect 1.95 million people – in other words, that many Texans would get a raise because a $10.10 wage would surpass what they currently make. (Another 920,000 Texans would be indirectly affected since they make just above $10.10 and a minimum wage hike would likely adjust pay scales overall.)

With so many Texans struggling to make ends meet, one would think that calls to raise the state’s minimum wage would be growing louder. In recent months, there have been several prominent protests from national sources, but not as much organizing done exclusively at the state level.

The grand irony here? Raising Texas’ minimum wage wouldn’t just benefit low-wage workers, but would likely be a huge boon to business across the state as well. Here’s more on that, again from Fortune Magazine…

What outpaces other states even more is the economic benefit that Texas would receive from a $10.10 minimum wage. The EPI estimates that the state would see a gross domestic product impact of $3.1 billion, that’s nearly $2 billion more than the potential stimulus in Florida — again the runner-up.

It’s not just the total number of workers in Texas – the second most populous state in the U.S. – that puts the state in this position. It’s also the state’s incredibly large low-wage workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 400,000 workers in Texas whose hourly wage is at or below the federal standard of $7.25 – more than double that of any other state. While that’s a lot in absolute terms, it also represents a large portion of the state’s overall workforce: 6.4% — the fifth highest percentage in the country, behind Tennessee, Idaho, Arkansas and Alabama.

Many business leaders have figured out that raising wages is good for them. Take for example Buc-ee’s… the gas station and knick-knack chain that is quickly becoming a Lone Star institution. Key to their undeniable success? The fact all workers are paid wages starting at $11.50 per hour. Contrary to all the horror stories people tell about stores collapsing if they’re forced to pay employees more, and prices of goods surging out of control, Buc-ee’s is doing just fine.

Right now, people in every corner of the Lone Star State are making critical decisions in the voting booth about education, health care, and future government priorities. Though the actual minimum wage may not be up for a vote in 2014, you can be sure that this issue is on the ballot. If you support raising the minimum wage for the state of Texas, then you should also support Wendy Davis… the only candidate that has pledged to do just that. As a former minimum wage worker and single mom, she knows that even if politicians and news media aren’t always talking about it, establishing a living wage for Texas will have a drastic effects on millions of people’s lives.

Raising the minimum wage suddenly became a hot issue in the Texas governor’s race just after Labor Day, with Democrat Wendy Davis endorsing it, and Republican Greg Abbott opposing it.

The national campaign by fast-food workers calling for raising the minimum wage helped spark the discussion.

“I’ll fight to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 because this is a family issue,” Davis declared Thursday at a rally at the University of Texas-San Antonio, during her multicity tour of universities.

“Half of the 2.8 million people in Texas who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage are supporting families,” Davis said.

“$7.25 an hour is $15,000 a year, and I know from experience that is not enough to support a family,” Davis said.

Leticia Van de Putte, the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, also supports raising the state’s minimum wage. As the state’s highest elected officials, Davis and Van de Putte would truly have the ability to bring this need to light and commit the legislature to a wage increase.

On the other hand, Davis’ opponent Greg Abbott remains a vigorous defender low-wages for the Lone Star state.

A lot of people think that elections don’t matter, or that their vote isn’t going to make a difference in an election. But in 2014 for the state of Texas, that couldn’t be further from the truth. If Texans show up to the polls during Early Voting and on Election Day, they will have Wendy Davis as Governor. And that decision could result in a living wage for literally millions of people. This time, it’s just too important to sit out.

‘Can’t survive on $7.25?’ Then vote for Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte. Vote for $10.10.